…. Yup. I can’t say I’m overly pleased to be feeling this way and it’s only Tuesday. Image that. I’ve been reading some blogs and wow - I’m blown away with their productivity. It’s insane. I don’t know how they have the time to do everything that they do online. I honest to God feel like I’m standing still next to them with the things that I’ve got on the go and then the crazy crazy life their leading.

See I do this to myself ALOT. I read blogs and feel like I’m not even competing. Maybe I’m not really. I am having this feeling not only with the things I’m doing online and seeing online, but also offline. I just can’t seem to get my shit together enough to actually pull it together lately. What’s wrong with me!! LOL.

I think I’m just being me and really I am motoring along, it’s just that whole “keeping up with the Jones” which can be awesomely motivating and sometimes crippling.

I’ve been working on marketing my product for the past little while and if you’ve been visiting 45n5.com, Mark’s got a new site up which is totally for advertisers/publishers over at ShowYourAdHere.com - I’ve added my site to his repetoire. We’ll see how it works out. I’m hoping you’ll be interested in buying some space - I’ve got it listed at $5 for one week and $20 for the entire 28 days. Not too shabby and it works on a beer budget (which I can so totally relate to!).

So another marketing option is available. I’m still loving that Scratchback plugin and I’m not sure what I’m going to do with Entrecard. (Um, yes it’s still here - see, told you I couldn’t figure out if it’s worth it or not… so it stayed).

I’m thinking of doing some text link ads on my own and see where that goes. Maybe re-arrange my layout a little and start focusing on things I’m into and doing at the moment rather than having one sad looking link at the top there. Times are a-changin’.

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Since the end of November I’ve been doing a bit of online marketing for one of my websites.  I’ve never really whole-heartedly ever done this with any of my sites.  I’m really not sure why I didn’t apart from the whole lack of funds to do it.

I’m all for the free way of doing things - you know the whole SEO, leaving comments on relevant sites, and just trying to schmooze my way across the Internet.

I have to admit that schmoozing is not my thing.  I don’t have the time to do it.  I have tried and it works for a little while, but the thrill of the chase kind of wears off and there are other commitments I have that need to be done and I’ve not developed cloning so it’s just a one woman job.    Because I don’t particularly like it, I leave it and things end up waffling.

So I’ve been buying ad space on certain sites.  So far the results have been pretty good - I’m happy with where it’s taken me and I’m hoping that with more income from selling products that I can then expand on my marketing.  See that’s the catch - I don’t have a backup income source to put on the marketing, it’s basically what I sell and then a percent of that goes back into marketing and the business.

Makes sense right?

It’s just slow going currently.  I feel it’s slow… but maybe that’s the best way to start out.  I’ve been advertising on some 125×125 spots - and that’s been going well.  I’ve advertised through Scratchback - and that went well too.  Only a few of those sites where I’ve been doing well - took the scratchback plugin down.  AAAAAAHHHHHH.  Dumb.  Anyway - I’m hoping to do a bit more scratchbacks.  Scratchback for the most part is CHEAP ADVERTISTING and for the most part if people see the link and are interested they’ll click.

I’ve also been trying my hand at Entrecard for the site.   I’m still not too sure about this way of advertising, but since the site is new this gets some eyes on it that may not ever have known about it.  I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it up there - and I’m not even sure if I’m getting any conversions with it either… I wonder if there’s a way to track that?

Well, back to the marketing budget.  I know I’m going the cheap route and for the most part I’ve kept my budget at less than $100 each month.  Actually more like $50 a month - well, for February.  If things go well, I should have my budget back up to $100 and I’ll see where March takes me.

Do you have a budget?  How do you roll with it for advertising on sites?  Who do you use?

So many questions I know, but I’m curious if there’s something out there that I’ve not thought about yet, and maybe others haven’t either!

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The lovely Sapphire at BlueMushrooms has decided to take her blog in a different direction and she’s looking for suggestions on what we might want to see there.   I was sad to see her wanting to stop the journaling style she had there, because, well I love her writing style and I have been following along her blog since I started here - she’s been tackling the affiliate marketing and trying to make some money online and was one of the first blogs I found.

So I’ll admit the change in course has saddened me… but she’s a sweetheart and saw my heart breaking *wink* and has put up another area on her site where she’ll be journaling along (and admits maybe not so much) so I can still get my fix and so can you.

I was honestly surprised and touched that Sapphire is doing that… mostly because of me blurting out how I’ll miss it.  I  REALLY REALLY appreciate it!!

But anyhoo… check out her site, let her know what sort of things you might like to see there and stay in touch with her journaling as well.  She’s got a great amount of information - and she’s not one to spread the bull.  She’s a great resource if you’ve got questions about making money online, affiliate marketing - and we all can learn a little from her journey.

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